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Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Byebye 2014!

Woah, I feel like this year passed faster than ever!

I guess it's a sign of growing old when you feel that year after year is rushing by, and it makes a little bit sad ^^"

But
on the other hand, such a blog entry is the perfect opportunity to
think back of all the things that happened in the past year and to
recognize that after all, it was a year full of change and positive
achievements!

I will once again review my year using the questions from the previous entries I did (2013, 2012, 2011 and 2012. Holy shit, that means in 2015 will be my blog's 5th "birthday"!)

As for today or rather tonight, I will spend New Year's Eve alone at home because my boyfriend has to work - a convenient excuse to leave work ealier myself because he needed the car. I feel like a very dedicated scientist at the moment, spending every day at the lab, even tomorrow and on Friday I will work, haha! But this is the great thing about my job, I love what I do so much that even after everything failed repeatedly, I love to go to work, even on holidays, to try again and do a good job! But let's look at 2014 in a bit more detail....

What is your predominant feeling for the upcoming year?

2015 will definitely will be another year full of change!
After I got this amazing job I am currently applying for a position ad the graduate school at my institute, hoping to get a position as a PhD student starting next autumn. I am working hard to finish my studies in minimum time, which means I will hopefully graduate in June or July.
Consdering that my current job is paid means that despite the fact that I'm now too old for financial support from the state, I have more money than I ever had and I can save a lot - and next year I want to use this money to travel with my boyfriend! The top two destinations for 2015 are Prague and Venice, and I'd love to go to a Scandinavian country too once again. And if I get the PhD position I applied for, I don't have anything to worry about between my graduation and the start of the semester, so perhaps I could use the time to make a little tour through Germany, visit the big cities and meet some online friends for the first time in real life?!
As you an see, I'm pretty optimistic about the upcoming year. Perhaps because this is the first time that I feel like I really achieved a lot.

What did you do for the very first time in 2013?

I got a proper, paid job, haha! Though it's not a real salary and more like a stipend/scholarship and nowhere near a normal salary for a full time job, I am happy to finally have some financial security. Next spring my contract will change and I will even get a regular salary. This sounds like a really boring thing to count here, but honestly, after having financially very tough periods at some points in my life, I am now finally at a point where I don't have to worry anymore that I might be buying too much or too expensive food, I don't have to rely on financial support from my entire family to pay for my car and insurances etc... I DO still get financial support from my mum and grandma (and of course my boyfriend, which is the only reason why my meager salary is enough to actually live off, but it's just a good feeling to finally be able to pay such things as my car insurance from my own, hard-earned money, and to save a little bit for bigger expenses too!

While this year was not very exciting in terms of everyday fashion or make up, I had a lot of fun to try new things and I guess this year my style has definitely "evolved" into a slightly new direction. I tried Shironuri for the first time and it was a lot of fun! The outfit was also a bit Kodona or Visual-Kei inspired and that made me realize again how much fun it is to wear different styles from time to time! And I already have plans for another Shironuri outfit, hopefully I'll get to wear it soon :D

Out of my Lolita-related acquisitions and endaveours, I guess the only really notable "first-time" thing is that I ordered from Japanese Lolita brand Innocent World - my
first order directly from Japan and my first "first ownership" of brand!

Aaand I bleached my hair at home for the first time! It's only the second time that I ever bleached my hair and I was a bit anxious about doing it at home by myself... but I ended up bleaching it 5-6 times in total after all XD

Lastly, I died my hair pink! Probably the biggest change of 2014, after all the talking and thinking about it in 2014, I finally did it XD

I also wore an entirely pink Lolita Outfit for the first time for Winter ILD.

And of course, how I could I forget, the probably biggest "first timer" of all in 2014:I went to Australia with my boyfriend to visit his mum! Even though this was back in August/September, I still somehow didn't manage to write any blogposts about it or show you much photos :'D I don't know why, but I didn't really had much time after I came back because I had my wisdom teeth extracted (another first timer - first invasive dental treatment in my whole life >_<) my new job started right away after we returned. Still, I wrote a travel diary, so I should be able to remember all of the things we did there even next year :D And I was thinking about posting about our trip at some point in January or February, when people are starting to get sick of the cold weather and might have fun looking at pictures of brightly colored birds and fishes and beautiful beaches ^^

Major first-times in Aussie: Snorkling at the Great Barrier Reef, seeing turtles and sharks in the wild, seeing the beautiful Milky Way and generally hanging out with my boyfriends mum for more than a day :D

What did you do again after a long time in 2013?

Wear my hair in a different color than black! I had this haircolor since my surgery in early 2010 and it's the longest I ever had the same hair color, not counting my natural one which I wore for the first 15 years of my life without major dyeing-sprees.
But oh, the things I did to my hair in 2014....

I'm still not entirely sure how to feel about it all. My hair is a lot
more damaged and unfortunately also a lot shorter now, which makes me
really sad. When I was in my teenage years I had horrible hair and hated
everything about it, so the first attempts to dye it were more or less
motivated by the thought "If everything about my hair is shitty, at
least I want to decide on the color!" but in the end, the colors I used
were also mostly shitty XD Now after I went back to black in 2010, and
started to grow my hair, and finally found a way to care for it the
right way to make it look good, I got lots and lots of compliments,
which made me insanely happy.

Now they are much shorter... and look a bit shabby... BUT, the huge advantage of my lighter hair color is that it suits my natural eyebrows and lashes much better! While black was cool when I wore make up, without it I looked like an alien. Now this was very relieving, especially since I don't wear make up to work and now I don't have to dye my eyebrows and lashes in order to look like a human being, haha.

I also, at long last, got my second tattoo! The idea for this tattoo was born before I even got my first one, but I waited till after my graduation and got it as a present for my Bachelor's degree from my boyfriend last March.

After I got a sewing machine, I also for the first time in probably a decade I sat down to sew something all by myself! It started with easy DIYs and customization until in July I finished my first completely self-sewn dress, nicknamed "Midnight Rose" after the print! It has a lot of flaws and is nowhere near perfect, but I was very, very proud of my "first-time" work and even wore it to a big Lolita meet up in Vienna! I guess that makes it a valid answer for the previous question too.

Oh, and me and my boyfriend started to play World of Warcraft again - after a 2-year break that came when MoP was released about the same time my prescription ran out and I was way too frustrated with the game to buy so much money for expansion AND prescription... I was also currently in Finland at that time and I got Guildwars II for my birthday, and I just ended up playing tons of other games like the Assassin's Creed series and Fallout 3 during my WoW-less time. But again, due to the fact that I have a bit more money to spend on fun things at the moment, I started to play shortly before WoD was released and "dragged" my boyfriend into it too I guess ^^ It might be one of the reasons why I am blogging less currently, but then again, there isn't much exciting stuff to blog about anyway, even if it wasn't for WoW XD

Talking about Wow - another thing to add to the list: Drawing something with Copics. I was amazed they hadn't all dried yet, but in the end, I managed to find the necessary myriad of shades of blue, gray and purple to draw my bloodelf deathknight character (with a really pissed off look on her face, which you can't really tell I guess because I medded up with the coloration a bit but - HEY! It's a face with something actually remotely resembling emotion! I guess that would make it a "first time" on my achievement list XD)

Participate in NaNoWriMo, despite really wanting too. But I was too busy with work and exams to have any brain cells over for creative work. But I am getting more and more motivated to write something, and I guess it's only a matter of time before I give in ^^
Same goes for Inktober. In general, I didn't draw near enough to at least maintain my skill level. It feels like every time I touch a pen, I have to start learning many things anew D:

Also, I didn't do pilates. At all. I think maybe once or twice but that doesn't really count. But I went jogging a few times, we actually had quite a nice routine in summer and during our stay on Magnetic Island. But after we came back and I had those problems with my teeth and then started to work.... well, yeah. Speaks for itself I guess.

What's your "song of the year"?

Really hard to say, because I haven't been listening to any new kind of music, only the same artists and songs I usually listen to.

But working in the lab I listen to Muse a lot, and currently my favorite song is "Map of the Problematique". If I had to chose a more symbolic song it would be "Butterflies and Hurricanes" :)

What's your favorite CD of the year?

None... I didn't buy any music this year... but Apocalyptica will release a new album in 2015 and I am super excited about it!

I supported a band I like in a different way though, by buying their merch!

What was your favorite book of the year?

That's a tough one, did I actually read anything this year?
At first I thought Man, this year passed by so quickly"; but now that I think about it everything seems like it happened aaages ago!

Okay, I read the entire Mortal Instruments series from Cassandra Clare, and I actually liked it. Better than Twilight. Not as good as Hunger Games. But mostly creative, captivating and entertaining. It was nice to delve into a new fantasy universe.

Ahhh! And I finished A Song of Ice and Fire, but this was so early at the beginning of the year that I didn't even remember for sure until I looked it up in last year's review, haha. Of course they are great books and I am really looking forward to how the story continues. Every time I see or hear about G.R.R. Martin appear in public I shout at the TV screen/computer screen/person who told me about it "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!? Go home, Martin, and WRITE THOSE FUCKING BOOKS!" XD

What was your favorite movie of the year?

It's so weir that compared to the last years, we didn't go to the cinema near as often! Probably because we don't live in Vienna anymore and it's just more inconvenient now. We saw a ton of movies on our flights to and from Australia, among them "Maleficent" which I heard a lot of good about.... but honestly, I was very disappointed. There was a lot I didn't like about the movie and while I liked the general idea, there were too many flaws for me to like the movie as a whole. And I have to say, I usually watch movies without any expectations, so I'm usually not disappointed, no matter how bad a movie turns out...

Well, a movie that didn't disappoint me was Guardians of the Galaxy :3 It was fun, it had likable characters, it is part of the Marvel universe - I loved it!

And I liked The LEGO Movie too! Is there actually anybody who did not like that movie? XD

What was your favorite TV show of the year?

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D was great so far and I am looking forward to the continuation of the show.
We also started to watch Sleepy Hollow this year, and really love it!

Now, I have to mention here that I was really disappointed with the current season of Doctor Who.... so much bad writing, so much inconsistency in the stories and illogical dei ex machniae, it felt like the producers did not put a lot of effort into the show, which was sad, because I felt like the new Doctor and Clara had a lot of potential. But most of it was wasted on episodes that seemed like they were written by two people based on a bunch of keywords, where the first person writes the first half and the other person the second half, and then they glued the story together without actually ever thinking it through from start to end. But the Christmas episode was a welcome turn of events, and I do hope the next episodes will continue that way!

What was your videogame of the year?

I'm trying to think, but I don't know. I played a lot of Sims 3 in summer, and before we went to Australia I got myself Harvest Moon: A New Beginning which I also liked a lot (and ended up not playing at all because on the plane and during long drives etc. I was reading the Mortal Instruments all the time XD)
I just recently got the Pokémon Sapphire remake and Hyrule Warriors, so I haven't played either a lot and I can't really count them for 2014 - but I love them already!

I did play Skyrim alot this summer, after the little DLC disaster I tried to compensate for the "lost" content with some mods, and actually had a lot of fun. It's funny to see how such an "old" game can still be fun, still look good and still provide you with something new (thank you, modding community!) to experience! So I guess out of all the games I played this year, Skyrim was my favorite.

3 things you could have lived without:

1. Failing a supposedly super easy Cell Biology class thanks to a professor who thinks the fact that I accidentally mixed up two proteins (out of 5 in a question) means I didn't study diligently enough and who literally told me that I "apparently do not understand protein structure". Oh how I will celebrate the day that I can graduate from this clusterfuck calling itself a university.

2. Having my hair cut way too short and asymmetrically at a spontaneous trip to the hairdresser before our trip to Australia. I wanted to cut it a bit because obviously hip long hair would have been a bit of an annoyance for swimming and snorkling in the ocean etc. But the hairdresser ended up cutting roughly 20cm (instead of 10-15 as asked) and thanks to the fucked up cut she gave me I had to have another 5cm cut this autumn to fix it. If it weren't for this disastrous hair dresser accident I think I would be a lot happier with my current hair situation....

3. I was sick only one time in the last year, but that was because of a horrific Herpes outbreak affecting my throat and gingiva after my wisdom tooth extraction. The whole process itself was also something I could have lived without, mainly thanks to the super unfriendly dentist who pulled out 3 of my teeth instead of the discussed one. I accidentally bit him during the procedure, and I wasn't even feeling sorry that I couldn't apologize afterward because my entire face was so swollen. Too bad.

Your best idea this year?

Probably my change in hair color.
While I am not 100% satisfied with how things went and how they are now, I think the color change itself was a good idea. After all, this idea has been taunting me for so long, I am just happy that I finally had the courage to do it.

Another really great idea, that I didn't expect to turn out so well, was to change the arrangement of or living room furniture a bit - mainly because we needed space for the Christmas tree, but I think we will keep it like that even after we get rid of the tree! If you compare it to the pictures here, we simply switched the sofa and the table, and the table is now parallel to the window/balcony. There is not very much space between the heating beneath the window, the chairs and table and the sofa, but altogether it looks much cozier and somehow works out, we had a few guests this week end and everyone got around nicely. I just want to get a bench instead of the three chairs near the heater, because if people get up quickly and knock the chair against the heater, it will be bad for both.

The worst thing that happened this year?

My cat died, and I can't believe that it was only this year that this happened, it feels like I've been

missing him for ages :(

The best thing that happened this year?

I have to say it again because it is definitely, 100% the best thing that happened to me this year and in a very long time. I got an amazing job where I am currently working on my Master thesis, I have wonderful colleagues and an awesome boss and my workplace is the most well-organized lab I have ever had the pleasure to work at. The whole campus is so great!

I have been wanting to work here ever since the institute was founded, and when I finally got a job there I was more than excited and happy. It was indeed the fulfillment of a very, very long time wish.

The campus is especially beautiful at the moment because we had a lot of snow in the last days!

New Year's Resolutions?

Over the last couple of days, now that finally got some snow here in Lower
Austria and I once again I feel really "homesick" for Finland. Another
year passed and I couldn't visit my beloved Helsinki again, I didn't
make any progress in studying Finish and I miss it all more than ever.
My current job has given me plenty of opportunity to think back about my
internship in Finland and I realize again what a great and precious
time of my life those 6 months were, despite all the problems with the
internship and my thesis... I really wanna go back to Finland - perhaps not in 2015, but at some point in the near future. After all, I've never seen Helsinki without a thick snow cover, I have not seen the Aurora Borealis yet, and there is just so much left to do and to see!

But these thoughts made me realize that there are other things, other places, that I also wanted to visit for a long time, and perhaps 2014 is the chance to go there. Another country on my "To go to" list is of course Japan, but I don't think all my traveling plans can be realized at once, so I'll give that another year and some more time to perhaps study some Japanese too :)

As for more personal matters, I feel like I have been neglecting my health quite a bit, especially lately. A funny situation occurred to me at work when a colleague, who I sometimes spend lunch with, asked me "So, you actually live very healthy, right?" because on the rare occasions that I eat lunch at work I sometimes have only veggies and bread with me, I drink only water etc. I laughed so hard at that statement, and then quickly explained that I mostly just hate "hidden sugars" like you find it in many instant products, ketchup, drinks (even fruit juice).... but that doesn't mean I don't eat "obvious sugars" like sweets a lot. It did make me realize though, that I'm actually not that far away rom a healthy life style. My boyfriend went on a diet a few weeks back because he might have inherited a kind of hypercholesterolemia from his father, and he managed to loose quite a bit of weight simply by cutting out some foods he had been "binging" from time to time, and some other minor changes.

For 2015, I wanna support him even more (I dieted with him to make it easier for him, but I didn't notice any changes on my own body :( )and we both want to live a healthier life... but for me this also means to be more responsible about my non-obvious health issues. The past few weeks have been very stressfull, so I started to clench my teeth again at night and have a lack of sleep and more or less constant pain of my jaw and inner ear as a consequence. I didn't take my hypothyroidism medication since the week before Christmas because I simply ran out of meds and I couldn't bring myself to go to the doctor to get more for various reasons. I realize, more than ever, that my head is in the way of my body to be healthy and that I probably can't solve these problems alone. I just don't know where to turn to and who to talk to about this yet, since my previous encounters with a psychologist were only little fruitful.

... :★:~:★:~:★:~:★:~:★:
...

But anyway.

I'm
happy to say that in general, I conclude this year in a happy and
content way, regarding the goals I've set myself and the things I've
achieved. However, when I look back at the end of 2013,
how anxious I was and how I didn't really know what to expect so I
didn't expect anything from 2014. Perhaps I should continue like this -
not putting any high hopes and expectations into a year so I can only be
positively surprised if it turns out well! That's what I do when I
watch a movie too, after all :)

Only regret for 2014: Not enough shark content! Here's an attempt to make up for it!

To come to an end with this entry (which is somehow much longer than my previous entries - did I really do so much more in 2014? XD), I hope your year has been great too and you are happy and can be optimistic about 2015!

I want to wish you all the best and thank you for reading my blog and accompanying me on my way - although it's pretty silent here sometimes, I see that there are still a few comments here and there, new readers coming along once in a while, and that kinda makes me happy :) So thank you very much, and best wishes for the next year ♥

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